KBL head coach under police investigation for match fixing

Jeon Chang Jin, current head coach of Anyang KGC, is being investigated by Korean police for placing large bets against his own team last season.

According to reports from Seoul police, during his tenure with the Busan KT Sonicboom last season, Jeon Chang Jin placed several bets against his own team. He’s also accused of borrowing up to $273,000 USD from a Korean loan shark to bet on games. The police were led to Jeon Chang Jin after they caught two of his acquaintance whom allegedly have done business with the former head coach. It’s said that Jeon Chang Jin placed large bets on the second half of his team’s (KT Busan Sonicboom) game so that he could play his bench players more minutes in the second half against the opposing team’s starting five.

We deeply apologize to Korean basketball fans about this repeated incident and this investigation.

Is it on investigation now so we will see through their process. If these allegations are true, we promise to act with strict sanctions for him. Also we will do our best in helping the police move forward with this investigation. We are fully cooperating with their requests. – KBL press release

In 2013, Kang Dong Hee (former head coach of Dongbu Promy) was arrested for his involvement in match fixing. The KBL banned Kang Dong Hee for life. Basketball is a the center of a country with numerous match fixing problems in their pro leagues. In the last five years, baseball, volleyball and soccer have dealt with their own match-fixing scandals, with active and former players indicted or convicted for their roles.

With the police investigation on-going, it is likely that an arrest will be made this week and Jeon Chang Jin will be prosecuted for not only fixing basketball games against his own team but casting a dark cloud over the Korean Basketball League.

Nick Bedard (@bedardnick) is the editor-in-chief of Basketballbuddha.com.

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2 Comments

Jaison Chang

June 29, 2015 at 7:29 pm

Love the coverage of KBL in English, think it’s better than the Korean coverage. I would be interested in knowing who all the KBL coaches are and their player/coaching history. Always curious what their credentials are.